i think you may be okay to pass on flourite and save a couple dollars. a majority of your plants are water column feeders. the wisteria (can be planted or can be left floating) is going to be a good "nitrate sucker" and the ferns and anubias should be allowed to root on wood or rocks. i wouldn't suggest burying them in the substrate. your other plants that do get rooted will probably be okay with just some tabs underneath the roots. these will also be okay without Co2 and in low light.

I 100% agree with riley. I have close to identical setup to your plant and its been running close to 3 months now. I only use fine gravel and root tabs and my swords are happy. You may wanna keep an eye on the 2x 23w (i'm assuming its the spiral fluorescent) light for overheating the tank. I find out early that I have to completely turn off my heater and open my windows to cool the room and my tank. Also my micro sword are doing ok. it just grew a little longer trying to get more light.

Thanks for the reply! I could swap out the microsword for something else. Any other good foreground suggestions?

sure thing! I'm trying dwarf sag as a foreground currently. it looks similar to the microsword. The only problem i've heard is that it grows pretty tall under a lower light setting. you may need to trim it when it gets taller. I'm not exactly sure where you'd fall in the lighting category. I'm also trying dwarf baby tears which is supposed to be REALLY hard without Co2.

From what you have as a light setup now that i re-read it, you may be okay to give the microwsword a try. I'll have to have a second opinion on that, but I bet if it doesn't work out, pygmy chain sword may work out well for you!

I saw some one growing micro sword on youtube with my lightening setup and it seemed to work ok. That's what inspired me to try plus I like like the way it looked in front of a big rock.

I do have the spiral CFLs and they do get quite warm. Fortunately, my betta doesn't seem to mind. I may have to keep an eye on it during the summer. Right now I have them on for about 12 hours day and it seems ok. Is that a good light period for plants or do they need more like 16 hours?

i think you may be okay to pass on flourite and save a couple dollars. a majority of your plants are water column feeders. the wisteria (can be planted or can be left floating) is going to be a good "nitrate sucker" and the ferns and anubias should be allowed to root on wood or rocks. i wouldn't suggest burying them in the substrate. your other plants that do get rooted will probably be okay with just some tabs underneath the roots. these will also be okay without Co2 and in low light.

your microsword will like fertile substrate and high light though.

make sure to keep your temple leaf dosed with iron. it craves it!

Oh yes, forgot to ask this. If the plants use up the nitrates should i stop the biological filtration or do they not need that much?

Always a good idea to keep your HOB running unless you plan on a low tech setup (heavily planted and few fish). your HOB will compete with the plants for ammonia and convert it to nitrite/nitrate which your plant can take up anyways.

Ya, I've had a hard time finding the 13W 6500k CFLs. I may try again tho as they do seem to really warm up the water.

Right now I just have basic black gravel. I purchased some flourish liquid and plant tabs to add in once I get the plants.

just dug through the storage closet and looked at the old 10g while i was in there. apparently the bulbs i was using were 9w not 13w.
i found them at menards. they worked fine for my crypts, anubias, and java fern. who knows, they may work for you too.

just dug through the storage closet and looked at the old 10g while i was in there. apparently the bulbs i was using were 9w not 13w.
i found them at menards. they worked fine for my crypts, anubias, and java fern. who knows, they may work for you too.

I'm surprised, that's not even 2W/gallon. I guess those are all low light plants tho. I may downgrade to at least the 13W bulbs.

Oh yes, forgot to ask this. If the plants use up the nitrates should i stop the biological filtration or do they not need that much?

Don't stop the filtration. Just get some KNO3 dry fertilizer and add it into your aquarium. You may have enough fish and a small amount of plants to where you don't need to dose nitrates. Just keep an eye on it by testing every couple of days and see what your tank is doing. =]

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